Barrow load of runners

A nice optical illusion - but these are not 2 ft runner beans... it is my son's junior wheelbarrow!

'Bean' there, done that...

Oh come on, there's no law against bad puns. At least I haven't suggested a podcast!
Up at the plot last night for the first time in a few days, and what a change... although it was drizzling steadily when I got up there, and has since poured it down for 12 hours or more (long overdue), the previous few days' of warm and very dry weather had wrought a sudden change in the scene.
Lots of veg suddenly looks very tired and dusty: autumn is really here.
[Question: when does Autumn really start? in the celtic/pagan calendar it starts in July - essentially as the first fruits and veg start to become edible and the harvest starts- so by now we're well into it. I have to say that's a lot better for me than the 'back to school term' definition that seems to predominate now, which makes autumn feel a rather gloomy season, rather than the ' mist & mellow fruitfulness' thing.
Mind you, it does mean that the entire 'summer' holiday season would have to be renamed...]
Enough digression... brought home two carrier bags full of runner beans, and some pak choi - which went straight into the supper stir-fry. Pulled up the last of the onions, and put them in the shed to dry.
The seeds I sowed a few days back - cabbage, rocket, lamb's lettuce - have all taken in spite of the dry, and are coming on well. Have cloched some of them to protect them from pigeons and pheasants - the resident pheasant followed me around the whole time last night, except when he was sitting imperiously on the shed roof... as I left he hurled himself up into the big tree behind the plot, which is presumably his roost.
Next door on both sides there are signs of life. Downhill the shed-builders' plot has been rotovated. It now looks like mine did this time last year, just after we took it on - and makes me realise how daft it was to let it sit over the winter, so everything needed rotovating again come the spring. Let's hope they don't make the same mistake... Uphill, some stuff's been move around, and it looks as if someone new has maybe take it on, which would be good.

I need to get up there this weekend - weather forecast is good - and start doing some serious tidying up, as well as some sowing - getting everything in order for the shorter days. I might even have a bonfire, which would be fun.

Picture the scene...

Here are a few photographs of the plot as it was on Sunday morning...
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

1. the shed, and the compost bins;

2. a couple of nice marrows (oo-er missus...);

3. runner beans aplenty;

4. a rather green-tinted view, with the flowering coriander in the foreground (plenty of seeds to collect in due course)

5..sunflowers - Russian Giant - have done really well, as have the nasturtiums in front of them...

I came away with a carrier load of runners, the last (I guess) of the french beans, the first lot of pak choi, some massively over-sized spring onions (which I'd overlooked - they were a bit tough, but ended up in a curry and ate well), and some beetroot.

[Automotive aside: The Corsa's not mine: it's a courtesy car, since some clown chose to run into the back of the trusty Kangoo last week (no-one hurt, thank goodness). Kangoos must be the no.1 allotmenteer car - there are 3 others on the site! Loads of room in the back for moving wood and other hardware around, and generally fairly good mpg etc so green-ish. I suppose they've replaced the old Renault 4s as the 'polytechnic lecturer-mobile' of the 21st century...]